


Moonshine

by ilovemywife



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games), rdr2 - Fandom
Genre: Established Relationship, Gen, M/M, funny and cute. its just funny and cute, just guys being dudes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-12 03:30:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20144407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilovemywife/pseuds/ilovemywife
Summary: “Charles, why you ain’t ever get drunk with the rest of us when we partyin’?”





	Moonshine

“Charles, why you ain’t ever get drunk with the rest of us when we partyin’?”

Charles took a second to consider the answer, lit cigarette hanging loosely from his lips. Arthur’s eyes were glazed over and followed the bobbing cherry red tip of it, transfixed in the darkness, almost missing his mouth when he brought up his small bottle of moonshine for a drink.

“Well, I could tell you what I tell everyone else. That there should at least be one person keeping lookout. That I don’t like too much to drink.”

He took a drag, tracing small patterns in the air with his cigarette, eyes crinkling with a smile as Arthur’s eyes remained trained its tip with a look of great concentration.

“But, Mr. Morgan, the truth is…” he exhaled a lungful of smoke teasingly at Arthur, knocking him out whatever mild hypnosis he’d been under with a cough and a few rapid blinks, “If I get drunk, I get  _ drunk. _ Like, I’ll try lassoing you up and getting a ride, drunk.”

Even as the words escaped his mouth, he realized what he had said and froze in his eye contact with Arthur, a shocked, disbelieving smile stuck on him.  


Arthur was staring at him in kind, the same dopey expression gracing his drink reddened face.

He broke the dumbfounded silence they had fallen into with a guffaw and, “Well god damn, maybe you should have some of this right now!”

Arthur was messily pushing the moonshine in the general direction of Charles’ face, and he finally broke down into laughter as well as he pushed it away, liquor sloshing out of the bottleneck.

“Arthur, you know damn well that was a slip of the tongue,” Charles was trying to regain his composure, clearing his throat even as more laughs bubbled up, “What I meant to say was, I get too crazy if I get drunk and I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself in front of anyone. Not when I got such a good reputation already going in camp.” 

He raised his cigarette in a mock salute as he posed with his legs wide apart to radiate composure, schooling his face into his usual stoic expression. He only managed to maintain it for a few seconds before Arthur lecherously said, “Slip of the tongue, huh?” 

Raucous, barely controlled laughter rang through their portion of the woods, only stopping when someone indignantly stomped to the edge of camp and yelled in an accent made heavier by fatigue and irritation, “SIRS. THE PARTY HAS LONG BEEN OVER. WE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP.”

They quickly quieted their giggles down to wheezes, Charles putting a fond hand on Arthur’s shoulder to ground the both of them and whispering, “I think that was Molly!”

Arthur reared back and bellowed louder than they’d been laughing, “Sorry Miss O’Shea! We was just out here havin’ a wonderful time and didn’ think to invite ya!”

A frustrated yell all she answered with, Charles shook Arthur just a little as he tried taking another swig, moonshine spilling down the front of his shirt. “Arthur Morgan, you are drunk off your ass. Come back when you’re not a one man distillery.”

Arthur picked at his wet shirt front with a frown for just a second, eyes unfocused as he processed what Charles had said.

“Oooor, you could become a one man distillery with me!” Arthur slurred as he raised the bottle in a toast, a sloppy grin painted on his face, “Then- then we could be a two man distillery!”

Charles smiled again, face almost going sore from it, and easily grabbed the moonshine out of Arthur’s hands. The corners of his eyes crinkled with suppressed laughter even as he took a neat sip of the liquor, almost coughing against the intensely harsh burn it produced as he swallowed.

Arthur was looking at him with something like warm affection in his eyes as he slowed down, a gentle smile replacing the comical ones from earlier.

“Get to bed, Mr. Morgan. I’m cutting you off.”

He winked and returned Arthur's initial toast in the empty air that appeared between them as he gently pushed him back towards camp, Arthur stumbling like a colt on new legs as he was suddenly without the support beam that was Charles. 

He grinned and fought back a hiccup as he started back to his cot, zig-zagging towards his open air tent, looking back at Charles every so often as if making sure he hadn’t disappeared.  


Charles listened until he could no longer hear things being knocked over before grinning at the bottle of moonshine, swirling its contents and taking one more sip.

**Author's Note:**

> charles dont avoid drinking because hes stoic and badass and cool. he avoid drinkin because he knows if he does he goes TOO crazy and he literally tries lassoing people up for jokes and getting piggyback rides from them. please see the epilogue party scene with him uncle and john. thank you


End file.
